HOMILY XXIV. Delivered to the people in the basilica of the blessed martyr Lawrence, outside the walls of the City, on Wednesday of Easter Week.
READING OF THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. At that time, Jesus manifested himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And he manifested himself thus. Simon Peter, and Thomas who is called Didymus, and Nathanael who was from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them: I am going fishing. They said to him: We are coming with you also. And they went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when morning came, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore said to them: Children, do you have any fish? They answered him: No. And he said to them: Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. They cast it therefore, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter: It is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he was naked) and cast himself into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits away) dragging the net full of fish. When therefore they came to land, they saw coals laid there, and fish placed upon them, and bread. Jesus said to them: Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them: Come, dine. And none of those reclining dared to ask him: Who are you? knowing that it was the Lord. And Jesus came and took bread and gave it to them, and fish likewise. This was now the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples after he had risen from the dead.
The reading of the holy Gospel which was just now read in your ears, my brothers, strikes the mind with a question, but by its striking it reveals the force of discernment. For it can be asked why Peter, who was a fisherman before his conversion, returned to fishing after his conversion; and since the Truth says: No one putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God, why did he return to what he had left behind? But if the virtue of discernment is examined, it is quickly seen that indeed the occupation which existed without sin before conversion was not a fault to take up again even after conversion. For we know that Peter was a fisherman, but Matthew was a tax collector; and after his conversion Peter returned to fishing, but Matthew did not return to the business of tax collecting, because it is one thing to seek a living through fishing, but another thing to increase wealth through the profits of tax collecting. For there are many occupations which can be carried on without sins either with difficulty or not at all. Those occupations, therefore, which involve one in sin—it is necessary that the mind not return to these after conversion.
It can also be asked why, when the disciples were laboring on the sea, the Lord stood on the shore after His resurrection, though before His resurrection He had walked on the waves of the sea before His disciples. The reason for this matter is quickly understood if the cause that was then present is considered. For what does the sea signify except the present age, which dashes itself against the tumults of affairs and the waves of corruptible life? What is figured by the solidity of the shore except that perpetuity of eternal rest? Because the disciples were still amid the waves of mortal life, they were laboring on the sea. But because our Redeemer had already passed beyond the corruption of the flesh, after His resurrection He was standing on the shore. As if He were speaking the very mystery of His resurrection to His disciples through these things, saying: I no longer appear to you on the sea, because I am not with you in the waves of disturbance. Hence it is that in another place after His resurrection He says to these same disciples: "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you." For He was not absent from those to whom He appeared bodily present, yet He denies that He is still with them, from whose mortal body He was separated by the immortality of His flesh. What He there, while placed with them, confesses—that He is not with them—this He also indicates here by the position of His body, when, while they are still sailing, He shows Himself to be already on the shore.
A great difficulty in fishing arose for the disciples, so that when the Master came there would be a great height of wonder. He immediately said: Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find. Twice in the holy Gospel it is read that the Lord commanded that nets be cast for fishing, namely before the Passion and after the Resurrection. But before our Redeemer suffered and rose again, He commands the net to be cast for fishing, but does not command whether it should be cast on the right or on the left; however, appearing to the disciples after the Resurrection, He commands the net to be cast on the right. In that fishing so many were caught that the nets were torn; but in this one both many were caught and the nets were not torn. Who indeed does not know that the good are signified by the right and the wicked by the left? That fishing, therefore, in which it is not specifically commanded on which side the net should be cast, designates the present Church, which gathers the good together with the wicked, and does not choose whom it draws in, because it does not know whom it might choose. But this fishing done after the Lord's Resurrection was cast only on the right, because only the Church of the elect attains to seeing the glory of His brightness, which will have nothing from sinful works. In that fishing the net is torn because of the multitude of fish, because now so many reprobate enter into the confession of faith along with the elect that they even tear the Church itself apart with heresies. But in this fishing both many fish and large ones are caught, and the net is not torn, because the holy Church of the elect, resting in the continual peace of its Author, is no longer torn apart by any dissensions.
Now when such great fish were caught, Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land. I believe your charity now perceives what it means that Peter draws the net to land. To him indeed the holy Church was entrusted, to him specifically it is said: "Simon son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep." What therefore is later revealed in words is now signified in action. Because therefore the preacher of the Church separates us from the waves of this world, it is surely necessary that Peter bring the net full of fish to land. For he himself draws the fish to the firmness of the shore, because by the voice of holy preaching he shows the faithful the stability of the eternal homeland. This he did by words, this by epistles, this he does daily by signs of miracles. As often as through him we are converted to the love of eternal rest, as often as we are separated from the tumults of earthly things, what else but fish cast into the net of faith are we drawn to the shore? But when the net is said to be full of great fish, it is also added how many, namely one hundred fifty-three. The number is not without great mystery, but the depth of so great a mystery awaits your attention. For the evangelist would not have carefully expressed the sum of the quantity unless he had judged it to be full of sacred meaning. For you know that in the Old Testament all action is commanded through the precepts of the Decalogue, but in the New Testament the power of that same action is given through the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit as the faithful are multiplied. Announcing this, the prophet says: "The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him." But he receives action in this Spirit who acknowledges the faith of the Trinity, so that he believes the Father and the Son and the same Holy Spirit to be of one power and confesses them to be of one substance. Because therefore the seven things we mentioned above were given more broadly through the New Testament, but the ten precepts through the Old, all our virtue and action can be fully comprehended through ten and seven. Let us therefore multiply ten and seven by the triangular number, and they come to fifty-one. This number indeed is not without great mystery, because in the Old Testament we read that the fiftieth year was commanded to be called the jubilee, in which of course all the people would rest from all work. But true rest is in unity. For one cannot be divided; where there is a tear of division, there is no true rest. Let us therefore multiply fifty-one by the triangular number, so that they become one hundred fifty-three. Because therefore all our action exhibited in faith of the Trinity tends toward rest, we multiply ten and seven by three, so that we should arrive at fifty-one. And our true rest is then, when we now acknowledge that very brightness of the Trinity, which we hold certain to exist in the unity of divinity. We multiply fifty-one by three, and we hold the sum of the elect in the heavenly homeland as the number of one hundred fifty-three fish. After the resurrection of the Lord, therefore, it was fitting that the cast net should catch so many fish as would designate only the elect citizens of the heavenly homeland.
In the midst of these things, both yesterday's reading of the holy Gospel and today's admonishes us that we ought to carefully consider why our Lord and Redeemer is recorded to have eaten roasted fish after his resurrection. For what is repeated in deed is not without mystery. For in this reading he ate bread and roasted fish, but in that which was read yesterday he ate with the roasted fish also a honeycomb. What do we believe the roasted fish signifies, except the Mediator himself between God and men who suffered? For he deigned to hide in the waters of the human race, he willed to be caught, caught in the snare of our death, and was as it were roasted by tribulation at the time of his passion. But he who deigned to become a roasted fish in his passion, became a honeycomb for us in his resurrection. Or did he who wished to prefigure the tribulation of his passion in the roasted fish, wish to express both natures of his person in the honeycomb? For a honeycomb is honey in wax, but honey in wax is divinity in humanity. This does not differ from this reading either, for he ate fish and bread. For he who could be roasted like a fish from his humanity, refreshes us with bread from his divinity, who says: "I am the living bread who came down from heaven." Therefore he ate roasted fish and bread, so that by his own food he might show us that he both endured suffering from our humanity, and provided our refreshment from his divinity. If we consider this carefully, we see how it is also fitting for us to imitate. For thus the Redeemer shows his own things, that he might prepare the way of imitation for us who follow. Behold, in his food our Lord wished to join a honeycomb to the roasted fish, because clearly he receives into his body for eternal rest those who, while they feel tribulations here for the Lord, do not depart from the love of inner sweetness. The honeycomb is taken with the roasted fish, because those who here accept affliction for the truth are satisfied there with true sweetness. It should also be noted that the Lord is described as having his last banquet with seven disciples; for Peter and Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples are mentioned as having been present. Why does he celebrate the last banquet with seven disciples, unless because he announces that only those who are full of the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit will be with him in eternal refreshment? All this present time also unfolds in seven days, and often perfection is designated by the number seven. Therefore those feast at the last banquet on the presence of truth who now transcend earthly things by the pursuit of perfection, whom the love of this world does not bind, for whom even if it somehow clamors through temptations, it still does not blunt their begun desires. Of this final banquet it is said elsewhere through John: "Blessed are those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb." For this reason he relates that they are called not to a lunch but to a supper, because surely a banquet at the end of the day is a supper. Therefore those who, when the time of the present life is finished, come to the refreshment of heavenly contemplation, are called not to the lunch but to the supper of the Lamb. This supper is expressed by this last banquet, at which seven disciples are mentioned as being present, because, as we said, inner refreshment then restores those who are now full of sevenfold grace and pant in the love of the Spirit. Therefore, brothers, do these things with me, desire to be filled with the presence of this Spirit. Consider from the present what can follow you into the future. Weigh whether you are full of this Spirit; know whether you are able to arrive at that banquet. For whoever that person is whom this Spirit does not now restore, certainly fasts from the refreshment of that eternal banquet. Remember what Paul says about this same Spirit: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his." This spirit of love is like a certain title deed of divine possession. Does he have the Spirit of Christ whose mind hatreds scatter, pride inflates, anger exasperates even to division of mind, avarice tortures, luxury weakens? Consider what the Spirit of Christ is. Surely it is that which makes friends and enemies be loved, earthly things be despised, makes one burn for heavenly things, makes the flesh be crushed on account of vices, makes the mind be restrained from lusts. If therefore you wish to know the right of God's possession, consider the person of your possessor. For behold what we said, Paul cries out with truthful voice: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his." As if he were to say openly: He who is not now ruled by God dwelling within him will not afterward rejoice in the sight of divine brightness. But we nevertheless are weakened toward these things that have been said, we do not yet attain the summit of perfection; let us place the steps of holy desire daily on the way of God. The Truth consoles us who says through the Psalmist: "Your eyes saw my imperfection, and in your book all shall be written." Our imperfection will not be entirely harmful to us if, established on the journey of God, we neither look back to things past nor hasten to pass over to those things which remain. For he who graciously inflames the desires of the imperfect, at some time strengthens these to perfection, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with him lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through all ages of ages. Amen.